A government lawyer told the Bombay high court on Friday that though prison inmates can talk to their relatives or lawyers on phone, she was not sure if the facility could be granted to activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
'If we accept this, then in a few years we will not see a democratic India that we know'
He also said the Naxals were spreading in urban areas and were trying to mislead the people.
Minal Gadling, in her petition, claimed that all the arrested five, including her husband, have been in a false and mala fide way implicated in the case even when there was no involvement on their part in any such activity.
A police official said the five arrested are suspected to have Maoist links and had allegedly funded the Elgar Parishad conclave.
This senior cop who deposed in such detail about the Elgar Parishad, however, claimed to know nothing about the opposition to it from organisations such as Milind Ekbote's Samastha Hindu Aghadi as well as Pune's then Mayor Mukta Tilak.
None of them had anything to do with the violence at Bhima Koregaon, where they were not even present, points out Aakar Patel.
The judge said 'such books' and CDs prima facie indicated they contained some material against the state.
He took up the causes of tribals marginalised after their lands has been taken over for dams, mines and townships, often without their consent.
'The only way to kill time in prison is to read and she can't even do that properly any more.' 'Her knees, too, are in terrible shape. I could see how she was trying to hide her pain every time she got up from the bench where she was seated.'
The letter was seized during nationwide raids conducted by the Pune police in connection with the case following which these activists were arrested, he said.
The bench suggested that the hearing be adjourned "sine die" (adjournment of proceedings with no date of resumption).
Recently, the Bombay high court had set aside the lower court's order allowing extension of time to police to file its probe report against the rights activists in the violence case.
Yug Chaudhary, counsel for co-accused Sudha Bahrdwaj, then told the court that the War and Peace that the court had referred to on Wednesday was a collection of essays edited by one Biswajit Roy, and was titled War and Peace in Junglemahal: People, State and Maoists.
She has been in custody as an undertrial since her arrest in 2018.
Talking to reporters in Kolhapur, Pawar said it was not right on the part of the Centre to hand over the probe into the case, which was with the Pune police, to the NIA as law and order was a state subject. NCP leader and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said Uddhav Thackeray had overruled him on the probe in the case.
The letter says Maoists want to assassinate Modi the way former PM Rajiv Gandhi was killed, say Maharashtra CM and the state police.
On January 1 in 2018, violence erupted at an event to mark 100 years of the Bhima-Koregaon battle, leaving one dead and several injured, including 10 policemen.
The apex court questioning the police about the arrests said that 'dissent is the safety valve of democracy and if you don't allow these safety valves, it will burst.'
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and the upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year.
Bharadwaj claimed a number of human rights lawyers, activists and organisations were deliberately named to cast a stigma over them, obstruct their work and incite hatred against them.
'At this age we all know that death is inevitable, but everyone wants to die with dignity.' 'The judges have given the answer.'
'They (the government) want to tame everything.' 'The entire systems they are trying to change.'
The apex court also rejected the plea to appoint a Special Investigation Team for probe.
'It is a concocted letter and we suspect the IB (Intelligence Bureau) to be behind this game.' 'All the investigation agencies should have quietly gone about finding more about this alleged plot to kill the prime minister.' 'Why are you leaking such a letter that reveals the plot to the press as well as to BJP spokespersons?'
'Anybody and everybody who opposes this government for whatever reasons will be branded a terrorist and charged in such a manner that all human rights will be taken away.'
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